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In Good Spirits: Potable gifts and handy gadgets to keep the season merry

It’s easy to impress aficionados with right selection

VANCOUVER — From a rare and wonderful gin to gadgets and glassware galore, these are the gifts that will surely get your friends and family into the holiday spirit.

Spirits

When the days are gloomy and cold, nothing warms the soul like the rich, spicy flavour of dark spirits, especially whisky, especially Scotch.

Now celebrating its 75th anniversary in Canada, the always-popular Cutty Sark is a light, sweet, easy-to-mix blended Scotch whisky with vanilla-and-caramel flavours that make it ideal for mixed drinks, cocktails and toasting Christmas morning, $23.99 at B.C. Liquor Stores (www.bcliquorstores.com).

Those who prefer their Scotch bold and peaty will love Laphroaig’s Quarter Cask. This Islay whisky is aged in smaller casks to give the liquid a more intense flavour. This multiple-award-winning whisky offers a powerful whiff of smoke, with sweet hints of banana, spice and coconut and a long, gorgeous finish. It retails for $77.49 at B.C. Liquor Stores.

Bourbon aficionados will be intrigued by the new Maker’s 46. It’s the first innovation in nearly 50 years from Maker’s Mark, which has taken six-year-old bourbon and further aged it with seared wooden staves for as much oaky intensity as possible. Purists may raise an eyebrow, but the explosion of cherry, vanilla and cinnamon flavours will surely convince them. It retails for $50 at specialty liquor stores.

Taking a page out of whisky’s manual for success, Courvoisier recently released the world’s first age-stated cognacs. The Courvoisier 12-year-old is an elegant blend of cognacs that are all at least a dozen years old. It is fragrant with violets, orange blossoms and spices, with flavours of almonds, marmalade and dried fruit. It’s available for $89.95 at B.C. Liquor Stores.

For sheer opulence, you can’t beat Remy Martin XO Excellence, a luxurious blend of 350 individual Grande and Petite Champagne cognacs, none younger than 10 years old. Expect a burst of jasmine and iris on the nose, with ripe flavours of figs, plums, candied oranges, hazelnuts and cinnamon. It retails for $235.99 at B.C. Liquor Stores.

Meanwhile, gin lovers will swoon for The Botanist, a truly exceptional gin from Bruichladdich, the Islay distillery better known for its peaty Scotch whiskies. The Botanist has a romantic backstory involving a rescued Lomond still and a pair of famous botanists who retired to Islay. But what you really need to know is that the gin is triple distilled for a lush texture and infused with 31 botanicals, 22 of them native to Islay, for an astonishingly complex floral bouquet. It can be found for about $70 at specialty liquor stores.

Another terrific craft gin on the market is Schramm Gin from Pemberton Distillery. It’s a London Dry-style gin based on a potato spirit and flavoured with eight organic botanicals including, somewhat unusually, rosemary and hops. It’s bright, delicious and, of course, local. Find it for $66.55 at Legacy Liquor Store (www.legacyliquorstore.com).

And don’t forget the bitters – no one has a bigger or better bitter selection than Legacy Liquor Store, which has everything from The Bitter Truth, $23.95, to Boker’s Bitters, $33.45.

Gadgets and glassware

Cocktail lovers love the quirky charm and retro authenticity of true vintage glassware. But it’s not always easy to find. Luckily, you can pick up vintage-style cocktail and cordial glasses at Pottery Barn, for about $8 a stem (www.potterybarn.com). Pottery Barn also has a huge selection of decanters, ice buckets and bar tools like the Recipe Cocktail Shaker, $51. Simply turn the lid of this sleek stainless steel shaker and it will reveal recipes for 15 classic cocktails.

Every bar needs an authentic, old-school soda siphon for topping those Ramos Gin Fizzes. Pick one up at Williams-Sonoma for about $100 (www.williams-sonoma.ca).

This year’s gadget that you never knew you needed is the Corkcicle. It’s a plastic “icicle” with a cork on the end that you freeze then pop into an opened bottle of wine to chill it from the inside. Genius. Find it for $27.50 at Pizzazz Gifts in Edgemont Village (www.pizazz.biz) or at Cookworks (www.cookworks.ca), which also carries a great selection of must-have silicone Tovolo ice cube trays, $12 to $22.

Don’t forget to pick up a set of Teroforma Whisky Rocks for the whisky lover on your list. These porous stones are designed to be chilled then added to a wee dram without diluting it. They’re $29.99 at The Bay (www.hbc.com).

Finally, the gift they’ll all be talking about: the SakeKasu Bon Bon from Artisan SakeMaker on Granville Island. Sakekasu is the “lees” that remains after the fermented rice mash has been pressed during the sake-making process. Now sake maker Masa Shiroki has teamed up with Richmond chocolatier Takanori Chiwata to produce chocolate truffles filled with the deliciously rich, wine-y sakekasu. They’re available at the Artisan Sake studio on Granville Island, $2 for two and $7 for six in a gift box (www.artisansakemaker.com).

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